Latenight Reading
by PurelyHowrra
Summary: Howl finds himself falling asleep while late reading again on Air Temple Island.


"_You really should cut back on the reading Howl…"_

_"Why, Korra?"_

_"Because..."_

It was a calm and quiet night on Air Temple Island. Everyone was sleeping soundly, including some that shouldn't have been at the time. Nevertheless, many of the White Lotus guards were still required to be on patrol that night, given the high amount Equalist activity plaguing the city not so far away. All of the lights were out, save one orange lamp overhead, illuminating one lonely figure.

The sentry had fallen asleep at his post again, quietly sleeping against a wall he had stopped to rest at. His helmet had long since fallen on the floor, and the pages of one of Jinora's romance novels were loosely woven between his fingers, the corners of each page folded and refolded over again, no doubt from the young man losing his place several times. Keeping books stashed away in his uniform wasn't normally a very discrete option.

He readjusted himself in his sleep, letting out some incoherent mumbling with the shift. As he did this, the hard cover of the book plummeted to the ground, only to smash his foot with a painful thud.

"Gah," he exclaimed with a pained grunt. He took hold of his foot with both of his hands, jumping and hobbling up and down in a somewhat stupefied panic. "Ugh, what even- oowhoa!" His good foot caught on something hard, sending him to the floor with a noticeably larger thud than the novel that had fallen before him. He moaned pitifully into the bamboo floorboards, wondering silently why things like this always happened to him.

"Ah, spirits…" he mumbled, hoisting himself with his arms slightly to see what had such a grudge with him. Holding him on his back with his elbows, Howl spotted the accursed helmet lying at his feet.

Jogging footsteps came closer and a concerned voice pierced the air.

"Howl? Howl, what happened to you?" It was another guard, Tai Yin, the only woman—besides Korra, and even that was stretch sometimes—that Howl could casually speak to on the entire island.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He groggily replied, "I think…" His forehead was throbbing from the impact of the fall, but he wouldn't admit to that.

"Out late reading again, were you?" She stood over him, a small smile curving across her lips. She offered Howl her hand and helped him up, analyzing the hint of guilt face. "There's nothing wrong with reading every now and again, just try to take it easy once and a while, alright? And don't let yourself get too emotionally involved, it not good for you."

"I know, it's just-"

"Come on," she interrupted, placing her hand on his shoulder, "I'm the one that's supposed to be on the night shift. Go get some sleep."

Speaking through a yawn, Howl reluctantly replied, "Alright, just give me a minute. I gotta grab my stuff."

"'Kay. See ya 'round Howl." Tai Yin waved once and was off back to her post, silently hoping that for once he'd listen.

He waited until his friend was out of sight before going to pick up his belongings. The helmet shone dimly in the orange light, and the novel was covered in his dark shadow. The young guard wedged the heavy thing under his arm, careful to prevent yet _another_ embarrassing incident from occurring. He held the hard cover and turned it over on itself in his hands, inspecting it for damage.

Howl began flipping quietly through the pages, finding his place again, and slowly walking back to his room on the other side of the island. Suddenly feeling too tired to read and, to be honest, uninterested at the moment, he couldn't finish one sentence before giving up. He wondered why two lovers caught in the middle of an Earth Kingdom civil war had an easier time expressing their feelings that he did. He considered for a while the idea of giving the book that Jinora had so fervently lent him. Howl had read the book at least thrice, and yet he never got the ending he wanted with this one. It was so relatable, so believable, so _real._ Accept, just like in every other novel, the presumably star-crossed lovers end up together.

It hardly ever works out that way in real life. Words go unsaid, and scenes never play out as planned; there are too many places for things to go wrong.

And too often they do, even under good intentions.

"..._You'll end up getting painfully attached to something, and it will be too hard to let go."_


End file.
